Let’s Talk About the Newly Proposed Football Rules…

When the rules of the beautiful game were rewritten about a year ago, most thought that was the beginning and the end of the biggest revamp of the rules of football in 135 years.

Kick-offs could now go in any direction and pre-match red cards became possible. While we were still getting used to seeing one player inside the center circle just before kick-off, ABAB quickly turned into ABBA.

UEFA, in a bid to prevent the team that takes the second penalty from being at a disadvantage, introduced ABBA, a new penalty shootout system that involves team A taking the first penalty, team B the second and third, then team A the fourth and so on.

After giving it a trial at the European U-17 Championship in May, FIFA adopted the system and gave it a trial at the U-20 World Cup in June.

Coincidence? Maybe not. With all these drastic changes – which have several hypothesis suggesting they’re good moves – maybe football is about to make a turn around a corner. And, with the announcements made by the International Football Association Board (IFAB) over the weekend, that corner seems like it’ll be a long one.

World football’s rule-makers, IFAB, have outlined what some have now called “a raft of radical proposed changes” to the rules of the game. In a document titled Play Fair!, several changes to the way the game is being played were proposed, some of which are:

Reducing the duration of a match from 90 minutes to 60 minutes

Awarding penalties if a goalkeeper handles a backpass

Allowing players to pass to themselves at free-kicks, corner-kicks and goalkicks

Permitting free-kicks to be taken while the ball is still moving

Once a penalty is saved/missed, a goal kick is awarded instead of allowing for a rebound

Stopping the clock whenever the ball goes out of play

Allowing only team captains to speak to referees

You’re probably thinking of how weird all these new rules are, right? Well, IFAB – made up of FIFA and the four British home football associations – say the proposal aims to improve player behaviour, increase playing time (not sure how) and also increase fairness.

Yes, it is still a proposal, which will be further discussed at various meetings. But, what if all these rules become effective? Imagine a football game that lasts only 60 minutes? Ah!

What do you think of these “strange” rules? Would you like to see them effected? Are you scared of them already? Do you think it will take all the fun away from the beautiful game of football?

Let us know what you think. Share your views with us by leaving a comment. You can as well share this article with your friends and see how they will react to it.